Buffy/Appearance
Buffy's costume combines elements of 1950s aesthetic in the smooth chrome edging and her waitress' hat, and details from existing Buffet Coaches with specific patterning from pressed tin ceilings and display counters. Her costume sets her slightly apart from the other coaches, as she does not have a skirt. She is streamlined and efficient in style, with chrome trim, stockings and garters built into the design of her leggings. Her costume is in shades of cream to gold and copper. She has a folded napkin tucked into the back of her belt. Her main feature of her costume is the chest box, which is a display cabinet showing cakes behind perspex windows. Buffy's costume represents her personality, she's easy-going, flirty and fun. She's not as frilly as the other coaches, the Buffet Car allows passengers to easily go grab a snack and a drink without any fuss or delay. The only human elements of the costume are her waitress' hat, and her stockings - the fact she's comfortable in underwear reflects her stripped-back service, compared to Dinah's full table service food option. London London Buffy started life with a very contemporary 1980s look, with short spiky hair and the fashionable Aerobics leisurewear vibe. In some ways her costume was a very literal interpretation of the design, with real stockings held up over her leggings - in later versions of the costume, this was made an illusion for ease of wear. As with the other characters, the shoulder boxes were interpreted as quilted fabric pieces with latex buffers. Her torso included the "Display Cabinet" with transparent windows showing the snacks inside. As her costume developed over the first few years, she gained patterns - a burn-out velour on her leotard, wooden panelling suggested on her arms and upper legs visible under the lurex stockings. Her hairstyle also developed - Caron Cardelle wore blonde, permed hair pulled back from her face. By 1990 Buffy settled on dark hair, pulled up in "Victory rolls" and a neat chignon, with her classic little Waitress' hat. In the mid-1990s, Buffy went through a couple of notable changes - first in 1994, she developed blue accents on her cream costume. Each year the exact details of the costume build changed, but in 1995 her costume was given a major overhaul, as she gained rectangular solid shoulders along with Dinah and Ashley - Pearl having had the more dimensional shoulders since Reva Rice played Pearl in her Broadway costume in 1992. Along with the shoulders, Buffy's chest box was also overhauled to be a much bigger, angular build that dramatically changed her silhouette where the previous version had been more streamlined - this version closely resembling the Broadway style. In 1997/1998 her stockings became abstract, as a pattern on solid leggings, but by 1999 Roni Bruno wore solid silver legs but with the addition of the "window stripe" on the outside of the leg. She also wore a smaller, more streamlined chest box. In the final years Buffy lost the heavy black accents, replaced by a nut brown which created a softer overall palette. Her hair varied from a true orange ginger, through auburn, chestnut, light brown, to dark brown and black, chosen to suit the performer. Coaches L94 1.png|Natalie Powers, 1994 Coaches L95 1.png|Anna Jane Casey, 1995 Coaches L97 The Musical Company.jpg|Rebekka Gibbs, 1997 Coaches l99 08.jpg|Roni Bruno, 1999 Broadway The Broadway production allowed a new interpretation of the original designs with a much higher budget and higher technology build. This developed the more dimensional costume elements such as the Coach body shoulders, and Buffy's chest box to become a more realistic display counter, rather than the more abstract interpretation in London at the time. Many newly developed fabrics were also used for the costumes, new blends of spandex and lurex fibres giving the trains metallic finishes. The details of her costume were also elaborated on, with more time and budget for the build. Her leggings were ombre dyed lurex with 'window stripes', and her leotard was patterned with diamonds, accurately reflecting the pressed tin ceilings of extant Buffet cars. She also had stripes on her upper arms to represent the suspension springs that railroad carriages sit upon. While she retained the detail of the stockings and garters, the "window stripes" took the place of the suspenders, and the stocking tops were simply a pattern detail rather than practical as in London. This minimised the visual impact of the stocking detail as her upper legs matched the leotard, and while the white trim delineated the different garments, the overall impression was a lot lower impact than in the original. The costumes were built by Parsons-Meares in New York, who also built the costumes for the Japan/Australia tour, and the initial costumes for the Bochum production, which then replicated them with in-house makers. Some elements of the costumes were frequently re-made, namely the leotards and leggings which wore out the fastest, while the structural elements like the chest box, belts, etc, lasted many years. At some point on the 1989/1990 US tour, Buffy's leggings were re-made in solid silver with the window stripe, abandoning the stockings detail. This is seen in the Las Vegas publicity images, which re-used the US Tour costumes prior to the Las Vegas specific costumes being delivered. Coaches 1 us87.jpg|Lola Knox, Broadway 1987 Coaches J87 Lotta Locomotion.jpg|Charlotte Avery, Japan/Australia Tour 1987 Buffy US93 Edyie Fleming.jpg|Edyie Fleming, US Tour 1 costume Buffy.png|Broadway Design, Germany Bochum The Bochum production recreated the original Buffy costume sent from New York, with only minor construction changes as materials and dyes developed. Her colours became bolder, a strong gold/bronze palette rather than the paler creamy colours seen in other productions. While her costume has remained near identical over 30 years, her hairstyle has seen dramatic alterations. Wig: In Bochum, Buffy went through a large variety of hair styles. She started off as a brunette with French Twist. This then developed into a long, high braid in the late 1990s. In 2002 Suzy Bastone's Buffy became Strawberry-blonde, reflecting the bronze colour of her costume. 2005 saw Emma Nelson wear a half-up, half down style, with the flipped up ends more common to Dinah - who sported curls that year. In 2007 Sarah May sported strong dark stripes in the golden hair. 2010 saw Kate Morris wear her ends curled under in the most voluminous version of Buffy's style since the 1980s. But in 2011, Buffy suddenly went back to her classic up-do, now in a cool blonde. This classic style remained for the character's last years. Buffy Carol Hoffman b88.jpg|Carol Hoffman, 1988 Buffy wigs backstage b02.jpg|Wigs backstage, 2002 Coaches 2002 Buffy Susy Bastone Dinah Kelly Obrien Ashley Sarah Landy.jpg|Suzy Bastone, 2002 Rusty Coaches b05 Bernie Blanks.jpg|Emma Nelson, 2005 Dinah Buffy Ashley b08.JPG|Sarah May, 2008 B10 - Children (22).jpg|Kate Morris, 2010 Buffy b11 Locomotion.jpg|Lucy Maria Gill, 2011 Buffy Sian Frost b17.jpg|Sian Jones, 2017 Make-Up: Her make-up is kept in gold-yellow-orange colours, making it less flashy than Dinah's and Pearl's. She wears the same thick, black eyelashes, Dinah and Ashley have. In the past years she wore red lipstick. Las Vegas Buffy Caboose Vegas Getty Images 01.jpg|Las Vegas Dinah Buffy Ashley us03.jpg|Joanna Richert, US Tour 2003 Buffy Uk05 Ashley Hale.jpg|Ashley Hale, UK Tour 2005 Coaches UK12 01.jpg|Camilla Hardy, UK Tour 2012 The Las Vegas production saw some significant changes to Buffy's costume, to fit in the city's expectations of "Showgirls". Her torso was re-designed to suggest she had a bare midriff between the chest box and belt. The chest box was also reduced in size, so show more cleavage. She also re-gained the stockings lost on the 1989-1991 US tour, now over flesh-tone fishnet tights. The patterned leotard was reduced to bikini bottoms, however she did retain the "Napkin" tucked under the belt at the back to provide some coverage. Ironically, given the coverage of the stockings, Buffy ended up the most covered of the four coaches and the most in-keeping with her personality - always comfortable showing her underwear, this version of her costume showed a little more. This costume went on to be used for the 3D races filmed for the 2003 US tour, and subsequently used for the UK, NZ and Asia tours between 2004 - 2013. In the Spanish-language 1997 Expreso Astral, Buffy's costume was a combination of her Broadway and Las Vegas costumes, here she is wearing her Las Vegas costume but with the midriff present, although it is just plain with no designs on it. The non-Replica Starlight On Ice production saw a complete redesign of Buffy's costume. It no longer contained any yellow or gold, but blue and white, and this time she had a skirt. Her bodice and sleeves resembled folded napkins, and in her hair was a single flower in a vase. Category:Design